Woodworking blog entries tagged with 'diy'

Inspired by Jeff’s (Jcoulam) homemade cyclone dust collector, I decided to make one just like his. This blog is written to show how I built it.
At a local home center, I purchased one 8”x24 metal duct, a 5-ft 2” PVC pipe, a 2” PVC elbow, and two 2” couplers for about $18.
The first step is to make the cone. I tried to twist the metal sheet into a cone but just couldn’t make it look right and managed to get a small cut in my hand in the process. Ou...

After posting my Woodworker’s CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
Do you need one? No.Should you build one? Probably not.Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.Is it cool? Oh yeah.
In 2004 I stumbled on an Inte...

The next and final version.
I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to ...

Hi everyone, after some thinking and a lot of recent lathe work posts in a local forum, I decided to go for a mini lathe like the one in shop notes 73:
So far I got some of the parts needed to build the lathe, here are some photos:
All put together as a test:
I had some free time so I went ahead and did the drive and cup centers, the friend who showed me the magazine also has a metal lathe so he helped with the center points:
This was the easy part, now I need ...

Lately I’ve been looking around trying to find inexpensive ways to make clamps to use in the shop. I think of my purchased commercially available clamps I own two 3 foot bar clamps and three Quick Grip clamps, plus two old c-clamps.
Bar Type Clamps:
The first information I found about making your own clamps was Alex Harris’ video.
<iframe src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/OQFVzq41zFA” frameborder=”0” height=”315” width=”560R...

Ruler stop – nice and cheapAnd fits your ruler with guarantee..Ok That’s a promise, so I better keep it!
You need: some scrap plywood, scrap hardwood, a thumb screw (or bolt), and a threaded insert (I used 5mm).
Here is the result, so now it’s up to you if you want to follow…
Find a piece of scrap hardwood.Make a size that fits your ruler plus a little on each side, and a depth that match the insert plus a little extra (I’m metric, so I will spare you the meas...

Hand plane fence DIY (for my no 3 and 4) BlogMaking your own fence for any metal handplane.
I decided to take up the challenge of making a fence for my hand planes, this time I made one that will fit my no. 3 and no 4 Stanley and Record planes.The next one I build will be for the larger no. 6 and 7, but you can follow this DIY for every size.
You need:Hardwood or plywood in a good quality.(A) 6mm thick; app. 20 cm (8 inch) by 15 cm / 6 inches (B) 6mm thick; app. 20 cm (8 inch) by 10 cm ...

Hello fellow Lumber Jocks! I’m starting a little blog series on my work-in-progress DIY lathe. In short, I want to build a lathe to turn a few pens, without spending ~$60 some on specifically pen turning materials and ~$200 on a lathe.
So, I want to try turning. I’ve always considered myself a handyman-esque person, and I had that urge to build! The tipping point was when I found a few blogs such as AfriGadget, StreetUse and Future Perfect. Their owners travel a lot, and they notice ingenu...

Quick update on the whereabouts of my homemade bandsaw.Glueing-up the bottom wheel support:
Close-up of the top wheel support opening for the wheel orientation and blade tensioning mechanisms:
And the two wheels in place:
When hand-turning it to align the wheels I realized that my blade is warped in a spot, which makes it jump out of the wheels. Oh, well, anyway, I will recut and resolder an older blade from my shop bandsaw next time i go to the parents’.
I also ...

Necessity is the mother of invention. I have this saying above the doorway into my shop because just about every day I am having to create something new to be able to complete what work I have set out for that day. Yesterday it was a portable router table to replace the piece of $#!* Skil router table I bought from HD some time back. The router table has always been a pain in my arse and was never truly good for routing anything well. When I milled all the pieces for my Greene and Greene styl...